Harding has never hidden his paranoia and disdain for Russian President Vladimir Putin…and in this Real News interview is so embarrassed by Aaron Maté’s calm pushback against claims made in his fictional book, that Harding, stuttering and clearly flustered, cuts off the interview before host Maté can even say a proper goodbye.

At one point, Maté makes fun of Harding’s assertion that Russian spies are everywhere because of their affinity to use smiley emoticons during their communication.

The people who promote the “Russian influence” nonsense are political operatives or hacks. Take for example Luke Harding of the Guardian who just published a book titled Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win. He was taken apart in a Real Newsinterview (vid) about the book. The interviewer pointed out that there is absolutely no evidence in the book to support its claims. When asked for any proof for his assertion Harding defensively says that he is just “storytelling” – in other words: its fiction. Harding earlier wrote a book about Edward Snowden which was a similar sham. Julian Assange called it “a hack job in the purest sense of the term”. Harding is also known as plagiarizer. When he worked in Moscow he copied stories and passages from the now defunctExile, run by Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames. The Guardian had to publish an apology.